Like so many others, when my friend Mitchell first heard about Twitter he was skeptical. However he found a very useful application for the 140 characters allowed in a tweet.  This is what he told me:  

At first I thought is this whole Twitter thing was rather silly.  A 140-character limit sounded like a twisted celebration of our society’s short attention span; what could you possibly say in so few words that would be worth reading? The first examples I saw were not particularly encouraging. Tweeting the most mundane daily occupations out to the world appealed to some friends, but that didn’t mean I’d want to read about what they had for breakfast.

As the Twitter universe expanded, though, other more imaginative people thought of some great things to do with 140 characters. Augusten Burroughs, author of Dry and Running with Scissors, was one of several authors who recently participated in Twitter book clubs, allowing readers to take part in real time discussions about their favorite books.

I had previously tried my hand at book reviews on websites like GoodReads, a social networking site for readers, and BookCrossing, a book review and exchange site, but it was such a commitment. Giving every book the thoughtful, detailed review it deserved could turn into a chore, and it was easy to procrastinate until I’d forgotten what the book was even about.

That’s when I remembered my Twitter account. It had been lying dormant since I’d joined (mainly just to read Russell Brand’s hilarious and inspired tweets), but now I had a purpose: 140 character book reviews. Oh, I’m sure someone else already thought of it, but that isn’t really the point. Instead of letting the world know what random thought is going through my head or what I’m watching on TV, I can turn Twitter into a tool that’s useful for me, a place to create miniature records of the books I’ve read and enjoyed (or not) without the time-consuming need to expound on every plot twist.

Capturing the essence of a book in 140 characters has its own rewards and challenges. It is necessary to strip out every syllable of extraneous detail, to reduce the impact of hundreds of pages to, essentially, a single sentence. Watching the Twitter character count dwindle downward toward zero puts the pressure on, and I find myself aiming for a new kind of perfection: exactly 140 characters. To see the big zero in the right hand corner of the screen is strangely satisfying.

“Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’Nan: a day in the life of a food service manager; much more enjoyable to read than it would be to live.” Okay, so it’s not exactly a haiku, or any sort of art, but it’s my own reason to tweet.  

The key to enjoying Twitter: find your own.